


Snowmen

by shadow_of_egypt (Shachaai)



Series: Nihon [2]
Category: Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, Post-Series, Pre-Nihon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-20
Updated: 2010-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 04:57:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shachaai/pseuds/shadow_of_egypt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fai discovers mint for the first time - unsurprisingly, it's in the form of sweets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snowmen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [crys_tenkari](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=crys_tenkari).



White was a strange colour for Kurogane, but still, he stood speckled in it, having shrugged off his customary black jacket and dumped it over the head of Syaoran half an hour before, the boy shivering after having stumbled into a snowdrift. Fai, the self-proclaimed group mother, had ordered the youth back to their home on this world with Mokona for company, and then had promptly resumed hanging off of Kurogane’s arm, laughing as Kurogane made fun of his far too-long scarf.

“I could choke you with the damn thing,” the ninja had grumbled, running his right hand through his hair to dislodge the snow that clung there, more falling from the sky to stubbornly replace all he brushed away. Let no man ever tell Kurogane Youou he was fighting a losing battle. (Sakura or Tomoyo might just get away with it, but they were young and wide-eyed and it was a well-accepted fact Kurogane never _could _say no to sweet-faced sparkly girls.)

“But Kuro-puu would miss me too much!” Fai found it strangely exhilarating in this new world, dancing down a cobbled street with the windchill on his cheeks as evening fell, snow catching on his shoulders, on his scarf, in his gold-bright hair. The shops along the pavement spilled contrary light over the pavements, squares on the snow and ice that crunched underfoot.

“Keep telling yourself that.” More laughter, Fai actually unlooping himself from his stranglehold on his companion’s arm, abandoning the softness of wool to spread his fingers against cold, frosted glass, eyes as wide as a child’s at the colourful display in one shop window. Strange, interesting smells floated out from the shop’s entrance distractingly, a group of three teenage girls coming out giggling and talking amongst themselves, clutching paper packets to their chests. A sweet shop, where they made the products themselves.

“Can we-?”

_“No.”_

“But _Kuro-tan,” _Fai lamented – and there he actually tore his eyes away from the foreign, sugary delicacies in the window to make eyes of woe at Kurogane, who had stalked up beside him to glare at the treats, unimpressed, “they have little snowmen – see? I’m sure Syaoran-kun would love it if we brought him back a little snowman.”

Kurogane frowned at him. “You mean _you _would love it if you bought a snowman.” Why had this store moulded sugar into such weird shapes anyway? It was just clumps of sugar with added decorative sugar, a saccharine taste that lingered stubbornly in the mouth and refused to go away no matter how much tea or black coffee Kurogane downed to drown it.

Fai turned around completely, his back to the glass and a devil’s smile upon his face. “Does Kuro-chii remember how Syaoran-kun was talking a few worlds ago about local foods and diets being linked to the socio-historical state of each world we land in?” Fai was using potentially long words. Things never boded well for anyone Fai spoke to using long words; generally, it meant some sort of half-assed explanation was in mid-flow, and the best way to end it was nod, smile, agree and _shut up, _else Fai would come out with a whole host of weird and wonderful attempts at logic. “Even the confectionary counts as being a representation of the state of the country, and the world as a whole, that we land in, so -”

Kurogane sighed, and tuned out the babble; waiting for a suitable point of silence as Fai drew breath to launch into the second branch of his argument before cutting in, halting the mage before he could get another word out. “Just go buy what you like.” That was the real angle behind the whole conversation, anyway.

Fai beamed as soon as the words left the ninja’s mouth and vanished inside the store in the blink of eye – that guy had moved scarily fast even before he’d ingested vampire blood, but the genetic change certainly hadn’t detracted from any of that. Kurogane stomped in after him, grumbling under his breath and kicking off the snow on his heels on the mat just inside the entrance. He saw a familiar blond head flitting about the shelves in distraction quite easily, before seeing Fai go to the counter and actually _stay put _for a few minutes to watch one of the shopkeepers construct some form of tooth-rotting confectionary there. Fai struck up a conversation with the confectioner and Kurogane sighed and leaned back against the wall out of the way of the other customers in the shop, knowing he was going to be there for a while.

“Ne, Kuro-rin,” _half an hour later – _and that was quite good for Fai in a sweet shop on a new world -, they were walking back down the street again, Fai with a decent-sized paper packet in his hands (and at least one more in each of his pockets), plucking up the sweets he’d bought to study in the chequered light gifted to them by the window-panes they passed, admiring the shapes they’d been moulded into with a dreamer’s eye. “Do you think it would hurt to be a snowman?”

Kurogane’s boots crunched into the crystals beneath his feet, unforgiving. “Snow can’t feel.”

“But if it could?” Fai sounded wistful, so Kurogane granted him the grace of not looking at him, knowing the expression that would linger in mismatched, ever-changing eyes. Both of Fai’s home worlds had been cold ones, and the people in them colder. Still, he’d loved some of them all the same. “If you could really make a person out of snow, and let it breathe and move and love? Would that hurt?”

“Probably every day.” Kurogane was honest, knowing of cold hearts, and he heard Fai breathe in, the clench of ungloved fingers in paper. “Snowmen are only around in winter, after all.” It would be living with endless loss. “But they make kids happy, when they’re around. I suppose if I were a snowman, I’d be glad of that.”

“Kuro-chan was always a daddy at heart, hm?” That sounded a little brighter so Kurogane glanced over, seeing Fai examining one of the confectionary snowmen he’d bought in the shop, white sugar decorated with coloured icing glittering in the light. It certainly _smelled _sweet, a vague scent Kurogane recognised floating through the air. Fai saw the other’s attention, and smiled, presenting one to Kurogane. “The man behind the counter said it was flavoured with _menthe, _whatever that is. It smells good though, don’t you think?”

“It’s mint.” _Peppermint – _they had it in Nihon as an import, but Kurogane had never heard of it being used as a sweet. It was a plant used primarily by the healers, to cool and to soothe.

Fai broke off a little of the snowman and put it into his mouth – he seemed pleased almost immediately, eyes brighter, humming a little as he savoured the strange taste. “It’s _wonderful.” _The sweets were hard to touch but quickly melted in the mouth, turning into a soft, sweet cream that was easy to swallow.

“…Right.” Kurogane watched as Fai quickly demolished the first treat in its entirety, rummaging through his little packet for another snowman as soon as the first one was gone. Fai apparently liked the flavour, the fresh scent lingering on his hands, on his smile, in the air as they headed home, all around the mage as he presented the packet to a then-dry Syaoran and Mokona with a triumphant flourish.

Syaoran peered inside the packet, before smiling slightly. “Fai-san, you brought us mint creams?”

“Is that what they’re called?” Fai leaned on the back of the couch as Mokona dived upon the sweets with a cheer, Kurogane too busy stamping the snow off of his boots at the door – and grousing that Fai should have taken his own thigh-high boots off at the entrance instead of trekking snow over the carpet. (Fai ignored him as usual. “Kuro-sama, you’re so strict on mommy~!”)

“Has Fai not had them before?” Mokona looked up from rummaging in the packet to ask her question, the blue earring jingling on her ear.

“He ate a whole packet by himself coming home.” Kurogane grumbled as he padded through into the room in his holly-patterned socks (Fai and Mokona had bought them), having ‘lost’ his slippers a few days beforehand (Syaoran had yet to summon up the courage to explain to his mentor that he’d seen Fai and Mokona using them to decorate the snowman in the back garden).  

“And Fai liked them, yes? Yes~?” Mokona hopped from side to side, clearly hoping the answer was in the positive. Fai nodded and the white creature cheered again, Kurogane taking a seat and covering his ears. “Now Fai will make us mint hot chocolate and mint cakes!”

Kurogane didn’t look happy at the thought. “_More _sweet crap?”

Fai held out his palms, and Mokona hopped into them. “Mokona will have to tell me the recipes!”

Mokona nodded. “Mokona will help, and Fai will make lots of tasty treats!” The meatbun was evil. And greedy. Kurogane was undecided as to which was the more prevalent trait.

Syaoran carefully offered out the packet he’d been holding. “Kurogane-san, would you like one?” Kurogane _looked _at the boy. Syaoran returned the packet to his lap – Mokona took the opportunity to dive-bomb out of Fai’s hold and straight into the bag head-first, happily stuffing her face with what was inside.

Kurogane stomped over, and yanked Mokona up by the feet. “Those were for the kid, manjuu.”

Mokona hung upside-down, and flailed her little arms. “_Wah, _daddy is mean and picks favourites!”

_  
“You ate half the bag already!”  
_

“Mean – _mean!” _Mokona wriggled free and bounced to safety – Kurogane dived after her almost immediately, and Mokona took flight with a squeal. Syaoran watched as they ran out of the room’s door, Mokona still wailing about neglect, and Kurogane roaring at her to shut up.

Fai laid a hand on Syaoran’s shoulder. “You should try one of the creams, now it’s quiet.” There was a loud _crash _from upstairs. (“Silly daddy broke the vase!” “_Who _broke it?!!”) “Quiet_er, _anyway,” Fai amended, rueful, and then disappeared into the kitchen to most likely put the kettle on.

Hearing the distinctive thump-thump of Mokona’s body bounding back down the stairs – and Kurogane’s stomp after it – Syaoran decided the kitchen seemed like a very good idea, and quickly vanished after Fai. (He took the packet of mint snowmen with him.)

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is from a world without Christmas, as I can’t really see it as being feasible for everywhere the group lands to have that holiday, but it’s still about the same time of year, heading towards Midwinter. There might not be a holiday for the occasion, exactly, but I think some feelings would be the same from world to world, regardless.


End file.
